The wiggle/giggle car

The wiggle/giggle car
Originally uploaded by Robin's Nest3

My first foray into posting a video....this one just makes me laugh.

Weigela

Weigela
Originally uploaded by Robin's Nest3

Last fall Ryan planted a "living" fence of various bushes at our place (courtesy of Melissa's design). This spring and summer I'm enjoying watching the plants bloom. I'd never heard of a weigela before, but I have two varieties now!

I love their colorful pink flowers. And, looking around my garden, I seem to have repeated this color, or a version of it, all over the place. I may not wear pink, but I seem to like the color in my flora.

Productivity

This was one of those amazing weekends in which everything clicked and we got more done in two days that we have in the previous 12 months. So, what did we do?

We planted two snowballs in my "fence/hedge". The original snowballs didn't survive the winter.

We did our initial design consultation on a pergola we're having built. Our contractor, Brian, who also did two basements and three bathrooms for us over the years, has great ideas, so we merged everyone's ideas together and came up with a kick ass design that he'll be able to build for us in July. Woohoo!

We went shopping for a hot tub, and, to our surprise, put a deposit on one! Six-person, therapeutic jets, yippee! We've been talking about a hot tub since we moved into our house 5 1/2 years ago. I can't believe we'll actually be getting one now!

We hit Home Depot to check out some pergola material ideas, buy pegboards for a garage organization, and get some glue for our front step.

We went out to dinner at Casey's with the kids and gorged on nachos and chicken wings. I also introduced the kids to the wonders of the smoothie. (We've had two homemade smoothies since. A new way to get fruits into the kids.)

When we got home, we weeded the garden of those nasty thistles that keep popping up in my new flower bed, and pulled out all the past-their-prime anemones (a great perennial when it's in bloom, but it looks like hell when it's done). I also got to admire my bright-pink peonies that are finally in bloom.

We finally watched The Dark Knight. (Heath Ledger was suitably creepy/brilliant as the joker, living up to expectations.)

We hit church on Sunday morning, then, most importantly, I had a nap. :)

We organized the garage with peg boards, and hooks, and all manner of fastener. This was actually a present from George...a much appreciated and needed one.

And, then we rested......

The case for egg salad

We make a lot of egg salad at our house. George and I love a good egg salad sandwich, Faith eats it too, and Blake likes to crack the eggs (although he prefers to eat the whole egg instead of the mushed up bits). So it's the perfect food...you get to play, then eat. We've always just made egg salad with whatever was lying around. And sometimes, it's just mushed up egg and mayo when we're feeling particularly lazy.

So, when someone at work asked me if I had a recipe for egg salad, I was actually surprised. Recipe? For egg salad? Why? Don't you just boil, cool, peel, mush? Perhaps chop up some celery, maybe a little green onion? I like a bit of relish and pepper. Whatever. I'd never even thought about looking up a recipe.

I think that this is another illustration of how different people view the world--some people need recipes, others wing it. I took one of those "personality" test things on the internet for fun, and one of my characteristics was "creative". But, I've never really thought of myself this way. Analytical yes, but not creative. But, maybe my egg salad "non-recipe" is one example of my "creativity". I'm not sure how this meshes with my control-freak nature though...a balancing act I think.

Either way, it leads to good egg salad.